The Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ing Kwame Kpekpena, has dismissed claims of a return to persistent power outages, insisting that “we are not experiencing load shedding because we have enough generation.”
His comments come at a time when residents and businesses in the Ashanti Region, particularly Kumasi, continue to grapple with erratic power supply that has disrupted economic and social activities in recent months.
Speaking to JoyNews on April 23 during an inspection of ongoing infrastructure projects in the region, Ing. Kpekpena explained that the outages are not due to inadequate power generation but rather constraints within ECG’s distribution network. He stressed that the company is currently unable to push enough power from the transmission grid into communities due to limitations in transformer capacity and key network links.
“So what we are doing to improve the quality of the power we supply in Kumasi is to reduce constraints we have in the network,” he said. “We are not able to push the power we take from the transmission grid into the distribution network and into the communities.”
The ECG boss disclosed that Kumasi currently depends on two bulk supply points (BSPs), where power from the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) is received and distributed. To improve reliability, the company is constructing a critical link from one BSP to the Airport substation, which will help stabilise supply across the metropolis and provide an alternative route during faults.
“If you have a problem there, we can supply them from the other BSP. So this link is very crucial for us and we are working to complete it,” he noted.
Ing Kpekpena added that while a third BSP is being considered for Kumasi, the project is still in the planning phase and depends on collaboration with government and GRIDCo, as well as the mobilisation of funding. As a result, he said it is difficult to provide a definitive timeline for its completion.
He further clarified that occasional outages may occur when demand on the network exceeds its capacity, triggering automatic protective systems. “Once in a while we have constraints in our ability to move the power to customers… when that happens, we need to take some people off,” he explained, emphasising that this should not be mistaken for a return to “Dumsor.”
Ghana’s power sector has remained under public scrutiny following the prolonged outages between 2012 and 2016, widely referred to as “Dumsor,” which significantly affected businesses and livelihoods. Although generation capacity has improved over the years through public and private investments, distribution challenges continue to affect supply stability in some fast-growing urban centres.
ECG says it is prioritising critical infrastructure upgrades across the country, particularly in high-demand areas like Kumasi, as it works to improve reliability and meet increasing electricity demand.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com